Postecoglou gave Spurs back their identity – Slot

Arne Slot believes Ange Postecoglou has given Tottenham back their identity as the Reds prepare to visit north London in the Premier League on Sunday.

Spurs are currently in 10th place after an up-and-down season that saw them record impressive wins over Manchester City, Aston Villa and Manchester United, but have also lost seven of their 16 league games so far.

Their inconsistency has led some to question Postecoglou’s attacking approach, but Slott, whose Liverpool are currently top of the Premier League, believes the Australian is leading them in the right direction.

Ahead of Sunday’s clash, the Reds boss said: “I’ve really got to give them credit, if I look at Tottenham, I come from Holland but I’ve watched a lot of Match of the Day.

“You think of Paul Gascoigne, Glenn Hoddle, Gareth Bale. For me, they have always been a certain brand of football and a certain identity, and Ange Postecoglou restores that identity to them completely.

“They are a pleasure to watch every time, sometimes the results go against them, but I think they are one of the teams that can beat City.”

We were drawn against Spurs in the semi-finals @Carabao_Cup 👊 pic.twitter.com/VWgI4rrlRO

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 19, 2024

Tottenham Carabao Cup draw

Tottenham and Liverpool will meet in two games in the new year after playing together in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.

On the draw, Slott added: “An interesting game, but any draw would be interesting because, I don’t know if it’s always the situation in England, but the top four teams are still in the draw so it wasn’t easy. “

Slott reiterated his admiration for Postecoglou insisting he hopes the 59-year-old can bring Spurs a long-awaited trophy – but says he hopes it won’t be the Carabao Cup.

He said: “I hope, I hope they win the trophy. Not the League Cup, but I’m a full supporter of his Europa League team.

“People talk about trophies, trophies, trophies and that is very important. For me his brand of football is more important and if he can combine that with winning something that would be so good for football in general because then people can stop talking about ‘is he too attacking?’

“How on earth can you play too much attacking football?”

‘Judge the table after 19 games’

Despite having played one game less than their title rivals, Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League was cut to just two points after last weekend’s 2-2 draw against Fulham.

And Slott says previous suggestions the Merseysiders would run away with the title were premature, arguing they should only be judged when the season reaches the halfway point.

“As I have been saying for the last three or four months, you judge the table after 19 games because then everyone played the same opponents.

“Probably we were lucky, for example Arsenal had a lot of red cards at the beginning of the season, which caused them to drop points.

“Now we got a red card and we lost points. Now we have Tottenham away which Arsenal had at the start of the season, Chelsea have already played there.

“Don’t look at where you were in the season, but where you are at the end of the season.”

Liverpool team news

Slot says Ibrahima Konate and Connor Bradley remain out of the Reds, saying: “Those two are still in red, so they’re not training with us at the moment. They are on their way back, but are not yet training with the team.

“It is quite difficult (to predict when he will return). Let’s wait and see, but we have a very good rehab staff here and they’ve already done a good job with Alisson and a few others.

“The most important thing is that they are ready to come back if they come back and we must not focus on one, two or three games. In the long run, it’s more important that they are in shape after that.”

Slot looks set to have a clean sheet apart from these two, with Andy Robertson returning from injury.